Tech giants will face a new law if they fail to act on protecting children from explicit imagery online, the prime minister said today.
Keir Starmer called for tech firms to block children from sending, receiving or seeing sexualised content online, as part of a new government crack down on social media and AI companies.
The prime minister called for device controls to be implemented by tech firms operating in the UK – following a series of alarming reports from campaign groups pointing to the rise in explicit sexual imagery being seen by kids online.
A report from Girlguiding last year showed that more than a quarter (26%) of children have seen a sexualised deepfake of a celebrity, friend, teacher or themselves.
And one in eight girls aged 13-18 have received sexual threats online, with 34% in that age group no reporting that they ‘felt unsafe’ online.
In 2024, an Internet Matters report also revealed that 13% of teenagers have had an experience with a deepfake nude.
“The pace of change cannot be an excuse for harm,” Starmer told an audience at London Tech Week this morning. “And where technology poses a threat to our people, to our children, we will act quickly and firmly.”
“Now, you saw that earlier this year with Grok, they allowed their tools to be used to create disgusting, explicit AI images.”
He added: “So we took them on. And all tech companies should know that if they fall short on their responsibility to keep people safe, we will act with the same decisiveness.”
Starmer referred to the ability of children with phones to ‘send and receive nude images’, and rejected the argument that is the price to be paid for having access to ‘modern tech’. Saying he ‘completely rejects’ that idea, he called on tech companies operating in the UK to introduce ‘device controls’ that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images.
He added: “Because this is not an impossible challenge. These are some of the most innovative companies in the world, and I believe they can solve it, but if they choose not to, then we will act, and we will change the law, because when it comes to the safety of our children, standing by is not an option.”
Big tech companies like Apple and Google will be required to activate built-in features or implement technical solutions on smartphones and tablets to detect and block nude images for children, the UK Government said following the PM’s speech.
If companies do not act within three months, the government said it will bring forward legislation to force them to activate the technology, with fines threatened if they fail to do so.
The changes will apply to UK devices, including both existing and newly sold smartphones and tablets. Legislation could cover operating system providers and others in the supply chain, such as retailers, and will not affect the use of devices owned and used by adults who verify their age.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “As a society, we have not kept pace with the changing threats that children face. Abuse online is far too common, and we will not tolerate it.
“Tech companies have a moral duty to act, by making it impossible for children to take, share or view nude images. If they don’t, we will legislate.”
Apple recently introduced age checks for iPhone users, making it the first company to activate safety features by default for those who are not verified as over 18. Despite this, the nudity detection is not applied to the camera or broader apps, third-party messaging services, or search functions, meaning children can still take, view, share and save nude images. The government therefore wants Apple and Google to block nudity across the whole device by default, so they can only be deactivated via age assurance.
Last year, the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, called for government to outlaw AI-generated ‘nudification’ apps that were exploiting children.
She said: “The Government has set an admirable and ambitious mission to halve incidences of violence against women and girls within this Parliament. Getting rid of these exploitative apps and tackling this emerging threat to children would be a significant step towards this mission.
“Women and girls are almost exclusively the subjects of these sexually explicit deepfakes: 99% of these images online are of women and girls. Chillingly, evidence suggests that many of the tools designed to create them only work on
female images because they have been trained to do so.”
Alongside the changes announced today, the consultation on children’s use of social media has now closed, with more than 100,000 responses received from parents, young people and experts. The government will publish its response soon and will continue working with international partners to tackle this shared global challenge to drive better protections for children online.